Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Fiction

Rating: 9/10

Well written fiction is full of broken and beautiful people that we fall in love with. Likely because we see parts of ourselves, or those we hold dear, in them. I fell hard for this book.

Everyone one of us has had a dream or two (or nine) we relinquished in the course of living our lives. This novel brought all the elaborate memories of one of mine back to me; I wanted to be Stevie Nicks. Beautiful, talented, flower child embracing the holy trinity. Not the father, son and the holy spirit. But the other, far less godly one; sex, drugs and rock and roll! And there is plenty of all three is this book.

Daisy has grown tired of being somebodies muse and decides it’s time to be the somebody instead. She joins The Six and begins writing songs and collaborating closely with the lead singer. The messy intimacy that develops is the heart and soul of this emotionally powerful story. Every band member also has their own narrative, which somehow manages to avoid being nothing but sparring band member clichés.

The construct of the book is a bit different; delivered as answers to interview questions, which aren’t known, it flows like an article. I liked the change of pace and it was well suited to the subject matter.

Footnote: While the completion of this novel left me a little melancholy, I am grateful to have lived vicariously through Daisy for a short while. This book will be on my top ten for 2019 without question.